Dave Reardon: Andre Ilagan’s historic run a tribute to family and community

The obvious storyline is the neighborhood and the high school … the incongruity of a tennis champion coming from Kalihi and Farrington.

This is the home of football players and boxers.

Tennis? Isn’t that a country club game for the private school kids?

“It has a reputation as a rich man’s sport, and not something that you’d expect in Kalihi,” said Andre Ilagan, a few hours after completing the greatest career in University of Hawaii men’s tennis history. “Hopefully there will be a way for some funding for kids to learn the game.”

Maybe we shouldn’t be surprised by great achievers of any kind hailing from this area of urban Honolulu. Earlier this month, eight Farrington seniors earned associate’s degrees from Honolulu Community College before they graduated from high school.

So, why not an All-America college tennis player, getting ready to start a pro career?

The more you talk with Ilagan, his parents and a brother, the more you realize this is a family story, first and foremost.

The courts at Kalakaua District Park have always been good enough for the Ilagan clan, going back to before Andre was born, when his parents Sergio and Amafel and his brothers Anthony and Mark took up the game in the 1990s.

“Always at Kalakaua,” Anthony said. “We didn’t have to go anywhere, people came to our courts. They knew we’d be there seven days a week.”

That included birthdays and holidays, and it was by choice.

“The only times we weren’t there was if there was a hurricane and we knew the court would be wet,” he said.

It started out for fun, with second-hand equipment from the Aloha Stadium Swap Meet. They paid $2 for each racket and 50 cents for a bucket full of balls — a great deal, except the rackets were cracked and the balls barely bounced.

“Worse than hand-me-downs,” said Anthony, whose first love was basketball until he rolled his ankle and watched the U.S. Open while recovering. “It was OK. We didn’t know any better.”

Their parents — Sergio a jewelry engraver and Amafel a mailroom worker — took up the game, too. Amafel said she had no thoughts of her sons becoming great players, because that would require expensive professional instruction.

“You’re lucky if you can find a good coach for $50 an hour. Some are asking for $75 and even $150,” she said. “And one hour is not enough.”

Sergio’s solution? We could say it was the 1990s version of learning via YouTube.

“VHS tapes,” he said. “I had no idea how to teach when my older one wanted to play, I learned how to teach from videos and books. It wasn’t working out at the beginning, and I almost quit teaching. But Anthony and Mark, they told me, ‘Dad, just keep going.’

“Now I’ve been teaching about 30 years,” he said. “My older ones were my experiment.”

Pretty good lab work, as both won OIA individual championships while at Farrington, Anthony in 2001 and 2002 and Mark in 2004. Both made it to a state final, but neither won.

Meanwhile, Andre, born in 2000 — and, yes, named after that Andre, Agassi — toddled around Kalakaua. When he was ready to start swinging, the Ilagans had long since graduated from broken rackets and flat balls. And Sergio, who was never anywhere near a tennis court while growing up in the Philippines, had gained confidence as a coach.

“It made it easier that we didn’t have to spend a single penny for teaching,” Amafel said.

Like his brothers more than a decade before him, Andre represented Farrington in the state individual championships. In 2017 he became the first Govs tennis player — boy or girl — to win the state tournament. Then he successfully defended his championship as a senior in 2018.

“My parents would save up so once or twice a year (he could play in national junior tournaments),” Ilagan said. “I’d win one or two rounds.”

He’d played at the winter nationals in Florida, and at the USTA championships in Kalamazoo, Mich., in the summer.

“We didn’t have enough money to sustain expenses for more,” Sergio said. “What we could do is keep practicing and practicing (at Kalakaua).”

Sometimes the elite national competition came to Kalihi.

“As he got better and went to those tournaments, he’d make friends and they’d come on vacation to Hawaii, and they’d come (to Kalakaua) and play Andre,” Anthony said.

Last week, the family gathering was in Orlando at the NCAA Tournament instead of practice at the Kalakaua courts. Sergio and Amafel were there to see Andre make UH sports history by getting to the Sweet 16. So were Anthony, now a Navy officer stationed at Camp Lejeune in North Carolina, and his wife and two children.

“Just trusting your coaches, being a sponge,” said Andre, when asked how he consistently improved, year after year throughout high school and college.

Anthony said foot speed and accuracy as a shotmaker allow his brother to succeed at 5 feet 8 and 145 pounds.

“Understanding the grind that comes with tennis, it was a relief to see him come to full bloom,” Anthony said. “We’re all proud of him, and we’ll see more major accomplishments.”

As he prepares to turn pro, Andre concurs.

“The best is yet to come,” he said.

Farrington coach Jerry Watson summed it up well five years ago after Andre’s second state championship.

“He could be responsible for 50 or 60 kids starting to play tennis,” Watson told Paul Honda of the Star-Advertiser. “A good, close family can succeed at anything, no matter what, no matter where they live.”